


The Eden Child

by jessie_pie



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-05
Updated: 2014-06-05
Packaged: 2018-02-03 11:47:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1743617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessie_pie/pseuds/jessie_pie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Apocalypse is over.<br/>Sam is in the Pit.<br/>And Dean is supposed to be living a normal, apple-pie life- with memories of Hell and the knowledge that his little brother is going through the same thing.<br/>But if the Antichrist can take control of his own life, maybe, just maybe, Dean Winchester can too.</p><p>Warnings for references to Hell, nightmares, alcohol abuse, profanity and a mention of snakes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Eden Child

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Osito for beta-ing, and Supernatural _still_ does not belong to the author of this fic.
> 
> Set after the end of Season Five, but before the start of Season Six.

The luminous hands of the alarm clock pointed at 4:30 when Dean Winchester opened his eyes. He lay perfectly still, trying not to wake Lisa as he attempted to bring his heart rate and breathing under control. After a moment, he got up quietly and, pulling a t-shirt over his head, walked into the kitchen.  
It was useless to try to go back to sleep. Experience told him that it would be past dawn by the time the screams in his head finally quieted. He poured himself a glass of whiskey.  
The nightmares about Hell had never gone away, but for a while they had become less frequent. And now- his fist tightened around the glass- now barely a night passed without waking to the memory of his own screams or, worse, someone else’s. _And now Sammy was there too…_ He gulped down the whiskey in a single swallow.  
“Hello, Dean.”  
Dean startled and swore under his breath. He turned around slowly, allowing his frustration to rise. He wanted the angel to feel it.  
“Castiel. I thought you were done with me. I thought Heaven was going to leave me alone.”  
“Mostly, yes. But I thought you might want to hear about this.” The angel’s head was cocked, and he was looking at the whiskey bottle in Dean’s hand. There was something soft in his blue eyes. Dean scowled. The last thing he wanted was pity from a guy who couldn’t even get laid in a brothel.  
Castiel mutely proffered a newspaper. _The Auckland New Herald._  
“What the hell do I want with an Australian newspaper?” he snarled.  
“Read it,” Castiel said simply.  
Dean seized the neatly folded sheet, not caring that he was crumpling it, and squinted at the headline. His eyes smarted from lack of sleep and watered from the whiskey.  
“Mysterious Child Found in Desert Wasteland,” he read.  
“The child walked into an aboriginal community two days ago. He said the time was passed. When they asked him where he came from, he led them to a circle of vegetation five miles distant. It was a perfect circle, and it was beginning to wilt. There was no water there, and no conceivable way for such intensity of life to blossom.  
“He is ten years old and very fair, yet the sun strikes him not, and serpents do not cross his path.  
“They call him the Eden Child,” Castiel explained, his tone almost abrupt.  
“Jesse?” Dean asked. He poured himself another shot of whiskey.  
Castiel nodded stiffly.  
“Why would it matter to me what happened to the kid?”  
Castiel’s gaze locked on to Dean’s. Dean fidgeted uncomfortably before the intensity of his unblinking stare. Intense, but with the same subtle softness.  
“I thought you would want to know. Sam was right. The child made the right choice. People are more than their destiny. People can change.”  
Dean glanced down into the amber depths of his whiskey to escape those intense eyes.  
When he looked up, Castiel was gone.  
“Like it matters, you son of a bitch.” 


End file.
